Article July 22, 1933 Issue

Open-mindedness

HELEN MAR BROWN

A Report made by a research committee on social trends included the following statement: "A nation advances not only by dynamic power, but by and through the maintenance of some degree of equilibrium among the moving forces." To this statement is added the illuminating comment that "failures in coordination are due in no small measure to the tendency of human beings to fall into fixed habits, and conservative attitudes," and to the fact that "there is in our social organizations an institutional inertia, and in our social philosophies a tradition of rigidity."

In the simple words of the man in the street, human beings have a persistent tendency to fall into a rut. This unfortunate tendency of the human family has been spoken of as the "conventional habits and acquired prejudices of material thinking." One thing that appears to make it difficult to institute needed reforms along any line whatsoever is the fact that a certain type of thought—a type familiar to all of us—revels in its Gibraltar-like immovability. Proof of this is the lamentable fact that the world's progress oftentimes has been attended by unreasoning and brutal persecution of those through whom have come progressive ideas that have revolutionized the world's manner of thinking and living.

Mrs. Eddy, who gave to mankind the most enlightened of all interpretations of the Bible, encountered the hatred engendered in human thought by the newly revealed truth. Jesus himself had endured the world's calumny because he preached of a kingdom which it could not perceive, a kingdom "not of this world." He could say, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Our Leader, his faithful follower, was selfless enough to see that it was not hatred of herself personally that was engendered, but antagonism to the new idea. She knew that the religion which the world was seeking to repress was a religion having the power to awaken thought from its age-long stupor of materiality and subservience to creed; power to turn thought from a belief in a personal mind in matter to an understanding of the one divine Mind, God. To the divine Mind alone belongs the all-embracing idea of absolute perfection. The Mind which is God is unchanging Mind, and includes that which stands for absolute permanency, even where to human sense appear mutation, uncertainty, doubt. In divine Mind men and women can find the sweet comfort of an assured abiding place, free from unrest and unfulfilled longings. Before one can reach the goal, however, one must make the ascent heavenward. Truly has holiness sought the mountain top, up the rugged slopes of which the truly-in-earnest Christian must climb step by step. A trustworthy and effectual aid to progress is open-mindedness.

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